Rippling Interview Experience | SDE I | Onsite

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rippling
SDE I
August 11, 20257 reads

Summary

I went through Rippling's SDE I interview process, which included an Online Assessment, two DSA rounds (one of which I struggled with and had to re-attempt), and one Low-Level Design round. Despite positive feedback on the LLD and second DSA, I was ultimately rejected.

Full Experience

I appeared for Rippling's SDE I hiring process.

Round 1 - Online Assessment

2 LC medium-hard quesitons were asked on HackerRank with a time limit of 1 hour. I do not remember the exact questions, but they were oriented towards hard side. Q1 was solved within 20-25 mins, but Q2 had multiple failing test cases due to incorrect approach. I applied a less known approach and was able to pass all test cases.

After few weeks of the OA, I got call from the recruiter. They were asking to appear for an onsite interview the next day. They also discussed about current compensation, notice period and the standard behavioural questions.

The interviews had 2 rounds - DSA & LLD, both on the same day.

Round 2.1 - Onsite Interview 1 (DSA)

In the first onsite round, question was around Median of 2 Sorted Arays. I was able to implement the brute force and then optimal solution but the interviewer wanted something more optimized - even more optimized than a O(log (n)) solution. Got a not so well feedback here.

Round 2.2 - Onsite Interview 2 (LLD)

In the second onsite round, I was asked to implement an Employee Access Management system, and 3 functionalities - grant, revoke and get. I had to ensure I cover all the use cases and present an optimized solution. The interviewer looked quite happy with my solution.

Shortly, they reached out to have another DSA round because the first one did not go well. So another DSA round was scheduled the next day.

Round 2.3 - Onsite Interview 3 (DSA)

I was given 2 arrays - managers and reportees where managers[i] was the manager of reportee[i] with the constraint 1 <= managers[i], reportees[i] <= n. CEO or head of the company was always represented with 1. I had to find the level of the fartheset employee from the CEO. So, I had to basically find the height of the org tree. I did it within 30 mins. All the test cases given by the interviewer passed. They looked pretty satisfied.

Then came a follow-up question - the CEO wants the org tree not to go beyond a height h for organizational efficiency i.e any employee beyond a level h would report directly to the CEO and the subordinates in that subtree would remain as in the original tree. I had to implement this optimally such that the number of reportees to the CEO remain minimized, while also keeping the overall height within h.

Within the time left, I had to discuss and implement the solution. I was able to implement a greedy approach and the interviewer looked pretty happy and I hoped for a positive feedback.

Final Result - Rejected

Still wondering why :(

Interview Questions (4)

Q1
Median of Two Sorted Arrays
Data Structures & AlgorithmsHard

The question was around Median of 2 Sorted Arrays. I was able to implement the brute force and then optimal solution but the interviewer wanted something more optimized - even more optimized than a O(log (n)) solution.

Q2
Employee Access Management System Design
System Design

I was asked to implement an Employee Access Management system, and 3 functionalities - grant, revoke and get. I had to ensure I cover all the use cases and present an optimized solution.

Q3
Height of Organizational Tree / Farthest Employee Level
Data Structures & AlgorithmsMedium

Given 2 arrays - managers and reportees where managers[i] was the manager of reportee[i] with the constraint 1 <= managers[i], reportees[i] <= n. CEO or head of the company was always represented with 1. I had to find the level of the farthest employee from the CEO, which means finding the height of the organizational tree.

Q4
Optimize Organizational Tree Height and CEO Reportees
Data Structures & AlgorithmsHard

Follow-up: The CEO wants the organizational tree not to go beyond a height h for organizational efficiency. Any employee beyond level h would report directly to the CEO, and their subordinates in that subtree would remain as in the original tree. I had to implement this optimally such that the number of direct reportees to the CEO remained minimized, while also keeping the overall height within h.

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